Saturday, May 5, 2007

Flanagan’s Irish Soda Bread




Dan Flanagan was a childhood friend of Dave's. He owned Flanagan's restaurant in downtown St. Paul, but sold it in 1995. Gael says: “I made this bread--it is quite good. I happened to have Irish-style flour so used 3 cups of that. I found that even 1 1/2 c buttermilk was too much. And I had trouble getting the melted butter to stay in the X--maybe use less.”

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups buttermilk, divided
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or grease baking sheet.

In large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Whisk until there are no lumps. Form well in center of dry ingredients and pout in 1 1/2 c buttermilk. Use fork to stir mixture, gradually adding remaining 1/2 c buttermilk. Mix until dry ingredients are absorbed and rough ball of dough forms. Dough should be tacky but not sticky. Add a few more T flour if dough is sticky.

Knead dough 5 times in bowl. Shape into round loaf. Place on baking sheet and flatten into 8-inch round no more than 1 1/4 inch high in center. With sharp knife, cut 6-inch X deep into surface. Pour melted butter into the cut.

Bake until knife inserted into center comes out clean, 30-40 minutes.

No comments: